First look: 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter (updated)

Mark your calendars, collectors — you know now precisely when you can get your Ginter on.

Topps released the basic set information and a full selection of preview images for the seventh installment of its most popular baseball card lines on Friday as it teased 2012 Allen & Ginter.

The tobacco card-styled set arrives on July 11 with eccentric autograph inclusions and always-anticipated mini cards that have been a prime drawing card in the product since its Topps revival in 2006.

Each 24-pack box will include three hits — a mix of autographs, Relics cuts, buybacks and Rip Cards. Oh and among this year’s notable signers? Arnold Palmer, Roger Federer, Bob Knight and Ken Griffey Jr. — but there are plenty more where that came from. (Keep reading.)

Each pack will include seven standard cards and one mini parallel or insert as has been tradition with the set, while a Ginter Code promo card will be included as an extra card in every sixth pack — so, yes, Codebusters, the challenge is back. The base set will include 350 cards — MLB vets and rookies along with a selection of “world’s champions” and public figures as has also been the norm. The final 50 cards will be short-printed and found in every other pack. Some of the notables on that part of the checklist include Ryan Howard, Cal Ripken Jr., Bob Gibson, Prince Fielder and Nolan Ryan.

The mini parallel lineup is unchanged — standard minis, Allen & Ginter backs, black-bordered, no-numbers, Woods, printing plates and cloth cards return. New this year is an Allen & Ginter Baseball Back, which is numbered to 25 and takes the place of the Bazooka backs. Quantities remain the same as well with the no-numbers limited to 50, Woods and plates 1/1s and cloth limited to 10.

Relics
The always popular framed Relics return with more than 50 MLB players from the past and present to get, well, framed, while there also will be 10 DNA Relics from historical figures. Those will be 1/1s.

New will be Lepidoptery Cards — a card that has a pressed butterfly inside a shadowbox card (a redemption). They will only be found in hobby packs. The same goes for Allen & Ginter Book Cards (25 cards) that will pair players, autographs and Relics in booklet form. Lastly, the framed original buybacks will be inside packs, too. All 100 of those will be 1/1s.

For the hobby box-toppers, there will be N43s as usual — also with autographs, Relics and historic artifacts — along with Cabinet cards focusing on baseball players’ highlights (Derek Jeter‘s 3,000th hit off David Price among them). Other cabinet sets include Rollercoasters (five notable rides), Cabinet Relics (10 MLB players) and 30 Currency of the World Relics, which will include coins from around the world embedded into the cards.

Autographs
On the autograph side, more than 30 MLB players will be signing along with others who make the cut in the Ginter base set. The Cut Signatures set will consist of 20 1/1s — one Topps touted being mathematician John Nash.

Inserts
Rip Cards will fall one per case once again with 30 1/1 Originals paintings found inside along with Red autographs (/10), 50 mini exclusives, 1/1 Wood minis and a new inclusion — Rip Card Reserves, which are redemptions for full pieces of signed memorabilia. Among the players on mini exclusives are Jeter, Roy Halladay, Griffey, Ryan, Koufax, Justin Verlander, Stephen Strasburg, Alex Rodriguez, Ichiro, Pujols and Mays to name a few.

Among the regular-size insert cards will be What’s in a Name? — a 100-card set focusing on MLB players — 20 Historical Turning Points (memorable moments, speeches and battles) and 15 You’ve Gotta Be Kidding Me! cards that will note unbelievable stories from the past. Also to be found is a 10-card set of World’s Tallest Buildings, 25 Baseball Highlights Sketches and a one-per-case Colony in a Card — cards that include living organisms inside if you dare to tear and add water … think Sea Monkeys.

Over on the mini insert side, there are six inserts to be found — 15 People of the Bible (yep, David, Goliath, etc.), Man’s Best Friend (20 dog breeds), 20 of the World’s Greatest Military Leaders (think Julius Caesar, Napoleon, etc.), Giants of the Deep (15 whale breeds), 16 Musical Masters (Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.) and 10 Culinary Curiosities (unusual delicacies).

Now that you know more about Ginter, let us know with the polls below — and in the comments.

Chris Olds is the editor of Beckett Baseball magazine. Have a comment, question or idea? Send an email to him at colds@beckett.com. Follow him on Twitter by clicking here.

ummmm……I thought it hadn’t changed, at all ?!?! It is like a lot of Topps products….close your eyes and point-then try and attach what name you think the item might be……(this is especially true of there football items-like Prime; Unrivaled; Five-Star .

It is too bad….the companies (yes…..I mean you folks at Panini as well) do not listen to their consumers better. I know they cannot give in to all the ideas we the consumer might have out here, but maybe not so many parallels & massive color replicas in almost EVERY PRODUCT.

I am very excited to see this one, nice clean design. Want to see more images though and learn more about subsets and inserts. I thought last years set was truly awesome. I love the “secret” type inserts like Treasure cards and Faces cards from last year. I would love to see more retired baseball included. More dna cards! Loved floral cards too! That was a very cool idea and if it focuses on rare plants around the world I think it should stay! A true original I thought. Go Ginter 2012. Let me review the planned setlist LOL.

I like this design ( from what I can tell from the one card). I just hope they ante up with autos of retired players as they did with the 2006 set (and as they do with GQ). Chris I’ve written a number of times about my love for A&G, my favorites being the inaugural 06 set and 2009 probably my all time favorite ( great colors and designs). 2012 looks like a return to that form. Not sure why all the hate from readers right out the gate…

I like the base design, but there is A LOT more to this product than just that. For one how about a product that doesn’t include 40% redemptions? Also the rip cards are the big draw but topps has had major screw ups in 2 of the 5 years this product has hit. Topps knows this will sell, but it would be nice to reward collectors with a solid product a la 2006.

I must say I do love the design, it’s gotten better the last two years and this one looks very nice. But I’m refraining from buying Ginter this year. Four boxes purchased in the last 2 years, and I pulled 0 autographs, 0 numbered minis, 0 rare inserts (face flocculence, etc). I’ve seen breaks with 3 great hits in one box. If Topps spread the wealth a little then it might be worth buying, but I can’t justify spending 100 bucks on 3 $3 jersey cards and a bunch of minis and crummy inserts of ships and historical figures. I love the vintage-type products, but Ginter just isn’t worth the gamble.

I’d like to have a chance at the code. Too often by the time I’ve seen a box there has already been a case or two broken. I did manage to crack the first year, but way too late. And the later years, forget it.

Rip cards are cool, but not a ton of variants. Variants kill value.
Redemption cards are things to be avoided whenever possible.

am finished buying any of the Big 3’s products until they learn something about customer service and telling the truth, excuses from companies about why they “can’t control how cards are packed out” is a load of crap ,topps did just fine with heritage minors this year and then we were duped in with bowman chrome and i won’t mention sterling with “sticker auto’s” isn’t that the Bowman top tier product? stickers really? going to buy some NASCAR cards instead !

I like it–the boarder is understated, yet intricate and unique. I’ll be anxious to see what kind of insert sets we’ll get this year. It is hard not to like A&G because it has something for everyone. Take notes, Panini.

For me, the backs of the cards are just as important as the front. Especially in a product like A&G where it traditionally has career stats, historical blurb etc. If the back of the Clemente just has info about the relic, then Im not really all that impressed. If it has certification, career stats/blurb then Im pretty excited about it. Just my two cents as the first place I go when a card is in my hand is to the back to look at stats.

I am afraid I will have zero money after next years ginter comes out. I want both the Grif auto and Clem bat…I want it ALL OF IT!!!!! Just those two items has made Ginter better than every year but 2006. I am Jazzed!!!

If you want to do that for a common player of today, go ahead.
For players like Clemente as well as other significant players who have relatively
little in the way of certified materials on the market, one would hope they would
make the effort. The cost is not high enough to excuse this.

Other brands have taken the effort to show a picture of the original item as well as
some information about the item, like the date the game happened. People want to
know if its a bat piece or a piece of the stadium wall and they will also pay a different
price. In my case, I’ve stopped buying most memorabilia cards altogether when the
statement feels vague. If you use lawyer language that translates to nothing is
guaranteed it should not surprise you when the level of trust drops accordingly.

I usually like the design of the base cards, relics, autos, etc. and don’t mind parallel cards. However, I do hate getting cards of Pluto and the Eiffel Tower when I’d much much much rather have a card of a basbeall player instead.

Just hope Topps put more baseball items in this than last year. Its been getting more and more non baseball every year. Non sports is fine, but when more than 1/2 the product is non sports, especially the mini inserts, it feels its not a baseball card set anymore and make busting a box or case a waste…80% baseball 20% non baseball would better!

I like this set every year. Off-beat autos are cool (I got the spelling bee champ a few years ago). The weird inserts and minis are interesting year after year. I’ll probably bust a few boxes and hopefully get something interesting.

I like this set alot (probably even more than any other). The only thing I do not like is the inclusion of redemption autos. I am still waiting on two from last years product. What is worse is that out of the four boxes I bought, these were my only two autos. On top of that I got two relics of two different a players.

I dont buy boxes anymore (just not cost effective…..for my collecting fun !!), but still keep tabs on the hobby and here is my two-cents worth…….From what I see here is a pretty good bang for the buck and just to compare to an item that use to be considered “top shelf”…..here we have Allen & Ginters and on the other side we have Bowman Sterling, I think that Ginters wins hands down & ya know why ?? CUZ FOR $200+ ON THE BOWMAN STERLING PRODUCT- YOU GET ALL THEM STICKER AUTO’s……ID BE P***** OFF, IF ID BOUGHT A BOX OF THAT !! Here at least…..seems a better deal

Steve-O: Bowman Sterling has had sticker autographs since its first year, 2004. Nothing has changed there. Ginter has had on-card sigs since 2006, too, but doesn’t deliver an auto in every box — just three chances at one. There’s also an immense SRP difference — Sterling is $300 a box, while Ginter is $100ish.

i been a fan of allen ginter from the start, and can’t wait for new stuff but topps has to work on the redemptions. been waiting ten months for three of them and one is hope solo.. i think i will cut back on amount of boxes this year.

[…] Beckett News First look: 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter (updated) solid auto checklist . not too crazy about the world champion list though . hopefully it will be more appealing. havent seen the full checklist yet . […]

[…] of the base cards not fitting with the “era” of tobacco cards, seems to be rectified in the preview of 2012, so maybe I won’t write them off as quickly as I did the 2011 cards. I really dig the […]